| |
 My mother said to me, "If you
become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk you'll end up as the
pope." Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.
Pablo Picasso
Individuation is the process by which we become individuals.
Individuation has various facets:
 | We claim our uniqueness our likes and dislikes, values, tastes,
personality, viewpoints, interpretations, interests, goals, habits,
idiosyncrasies, purposes, philosophy of life, our place in the world, our way of
doing things, and our style, even in mundane matters such as fashion and
hairstyle. Individuation is essentially the same as "ego development." |
|  It is the fulfillment of our potential and our destiny. We come into this
world with tendencies and possibilities. Our personal decisions determine the
extent to which we enact those tendencies and possibilities, in the
individuation process. |
| It is one of the natural drives of life. Carl Jung said that the drive
toward individuation is as powerful as the drives of sex and hunger. |
| It is a human process. We do not try to be perfect, nor do we try to
conform to traditional ideals. Individuation is a process through which we learn
about the designs of life as we express them personally. |
| It is a universal process. Individuation is the novel consummation of our
potential and from a basic framework can be seen in various forms:
 | Groups of people evolve into distinct families and corporations and
cultures. |
| Our physical body individuates. We all have the same basic parts, but
their shape is slightly different for each of us. |
| We can discern individual traits among natural phenomena such as
snowflakes, flowers, or trees. |
|
Individuation does not lead to total autonomy.
| We discover our similarities with other people. As we define ourselves, we
recognize the same emotions, longings, challenges, and foundations that occur in
other people. |
| We learn that the various parts of ourselves do not exist in isolation. They
are parts of systems that extend within ourselves, and outward to society. When
we explore our individual emotional needs, we realize that many of them can be
satisfied only through interactions and interdependence with other people. As
Carl Jung said in The Practice of Psychotherapy, "Individuation is an
at-one-ment with oneself and at the same time with humanity, since oneself is a
part of humanity". |
| Individuation enhances the quality of relationships. Our relationships become
more intimate, because we are reaching out as a distinct person, not from a
position of vagueness and superficial role playing. |
One and Only You
Every single blade of grass,
And every flake of snow -
Is just a wee bit different...
There's
no two alike you know
From something small like grains of sand,
To each gigantic star
All were made with this in mind:
To be just what they are!
How foolish then, to imitate -
How useless to pretend!
Since each of comes from a mind
Whose ideas never end.
There'll
only be just one of me
to show what I can do -
And you should likewise feel very proud,
There's
only one of you.
That is where it all starts
With you, a wonderful unlimited human being.
James T. Moore
Next Topic: Duality |
